Rebirth of the 8th-Circle Mage - Chapter 359: The Heavens (4)

It didn’t feel like everything had been solved, but at least Henry could start seeing a little bit of hope.

Henry first took a few deep breaths, and this relieved the tightness in his chest and cooled off his head. Having calmed down somewhat, he returned to the human realm as he needed some time alone to organize his thoughts.

– Khaaa…

Henry found himself near a random mountain range.

He had chosen a remote area so that he could be by himself, but to his disappointment, blind believers were roaming this area as well.

They were shambling around, their eyes as lifeless as ever.

It had been almost a year since they emerged, and within that period, their numbers had decreased rapidly.

The reason for that was simple—famine.

The blind believers devoured anything they came across, humans, animals, and even demonic beasts, anything to satisfy their hunger… But over time, they naturally ran out of prey, so they started eating each other.

Of course, they didn’t ruthlessly devour each other as they would humans. They consumed the bare minimum, just enough to keep the hunger away and survive. It was as if they were trying to prolong their lives.

Henry didn’t understand how the blind believers could cleverly feed off each other like that. After all, he didn’t know what principles Dracan had used to create them and what rules he had instilled into them.

Henry looked at them and sighed heavily.

He didn’t have much time left, and if he continued to waste it, all the blind believers on the continent would die of starvation before he found a way to turn them back to normal. The world would basically return to normal by natural means. That wasn’t necessarily a bad option either, depending on one’s perspective.

But Henry would still hear the desperate prayers of the people of Morris, who had once been refugees. Some of these blind believers were their family, their friends, and one day, Arthus had taken them away.

‘I guess having many followers has its disadvantages.’

Even during his battle against Arthus, Henry’s large number of followers had ensured his victory, since one’s number of followers was proportional to how much divine power they had.

However, with Arthus dead and peace restored, Henry was more of a civil servant that took care of the complaints of his followers rather than a god.

Of course, Henry could just ignore those prayers, since he had already gotten his revenge and gained greater powers than ever before.

But he wasn’t like Arthus. Ever since he had established the Eurasia Empire, Henry had always cared deeply for his people, much like Golden Jackson. That was also why Henry had promoted the development of magic for everyday life at the Magical Spire.

“Tsk.”

Henry finally felt like he had cleared his mind somewhat, but his head was pounding again at the sight of the blind believers.

Henry clicked his tongue in frustration and lay down on the rock he had been sitting on. The warm rays of the sun washed over him, but not even this felt pleasant.

‘Heavenly God…’

Henry thought about the Heavenly God. He had been forced to change his plan with Ganisel, but Ganisel’s strategy wasn’t completely reliable, and it certainly didn’t guarantee success.

It was merely a plan with a high number of variables. Henry recalled what the Virtue, Virtus, had once said.

‘Make a different choice…?’

What kind of choice did the Heavenly God want Henry to make, to the point where he had given him six chances so far?

‘Did I try to force my way through all five times?’

Ever since acquiring divine power, Henry acted more boldly, and there wouldn’t have been any reason for him to act differently in the heavens.

However, Henry had to have done something different from his previous attempts, given that Virtus had revealed himself and spoken to him.

So what did the Heavenly God expect from Henry?

No matter how hard Henry thought, he couldn’t figure out what the Heavenly God wanted from him.

‘I wish I could have a proper conversation with him.’

Henry didn’t wish for anything big. All he wanted was to meet with the Heavenly God and have a proper discussion with him, even if his request would ultimately be denied.

After all, Henry would ask nicely for the power of time, not forcefully take it.

‘…’

After thinking for a long time, he stood back up.

Indeed, Ganisel was his last option. If this new plan didn’t work, he would have to create an army and stand before the Heavenly God, but Henry believed it would be too rash to do that at this time.

‘Okay, let’s try one more time.’

Henry had heard most of what he needed to know about the heavens from Ganisel. Of course, that didn’t change much, but ignorance was never a good thing.

“Haa…”

Henry let out a long sigh that had been building up in his chest. He then collected his thoughts once again before opening a dimensional gap.

The coordinates were obviously set for the heavens. As he stepped into the gap, his surroundings changed instantly.

– Sisibaba, sisibaba…

The Sisibabas hiding all over the place spotted Henry the second he emerged from the dimensional gap, announcing everyone of his arrival.

Henry also heard about the Sisibaba’s from Ganisel, so he didn’t do anything. He just stood still and waited. Given that these creatures had just announced his visit, he figured that someone would soon greet him.

And he was half right.

Something did in fact greet Henry, but they were the snakes and the flame wheels that had ambushed him before.

They were called Jordans and Harehares, and they were first and second-rank creatures respectively.

“It’s you guys again?”

Henry sighed as he watched the Jordans and Harehares slowly growing in numbers. He wondered if he would have to cut them down again to meet Virtus.

But honestly, Henry didn’t want to eliminate them. He had come here merely to talk, so he didn’t want to cause unnecessary conflict with them.

Of course, the Jordans and Herehares didn’t care about Henry’s circumstances.

– Shaaaa!

Numerous giant Jordans lunged at Henry with their mouths wide open.

Henry cast his Magic Shield imbued with divine power. The Magic Shield was purely for defensive purposes, so there were no other spells attached to it to counterattack.

Hundreds of Jordans and Harehares rushed into the small golden shield that Henry had created. It was a ruthless attack, but Henry stood still and patiently waited for another heavenly being to appear.

An hour had passed, and by this point, news of Henry’s arrival had to have spread all over the heavens through the Sisibabas. Every single being in the heavens was probably watching him.

Henry stared at the Jordans with a bored expression as they bared their fangs. They were trying to penetrate his Magic Shield with their shard poisonous fangs, but such pitiful attacks from lowly heavenly beings wouldn’t even scratch the shield.

Only after waiting another long hour did Henry hear a voice, and a familiar one at that.

“Incredible.”

It was Virtus.

Henry hadn’t heard him at first because of the noise made by the countless Jordans and Harehares outside his shield.

However, when Virtus appeared, they all stepped back from the shield and made way for him. Henry spotted Virtus at the end of the path, holding his lyre and smiling at him.

“Welcome, Sir Henry. I didn’t expect you to be back so soon.”

“…You weren’t in a hurry, huh?”

“Haha, I do apologize for that. I heard the news of your arrival very late, but…It seems that these creatures have been rude in the meantime.”

“Rude?”

Virtus had to have heard about Henry’s arrival from the Sisibabas and that the heavenly beings were attacking him. However, he shamelessly played it off as if hadn’t known.

Because of that, Henry was disgusted by his smile.

‘So you’re going to pretend you didn’t know?’

What Virtus was doing was disgraceful, but Henry wouldn’t lose his cool over this. After all, he had come here to ask for a favor, so he would keep his head down for the time being and try not to offend anyone.

He feigned ignorance at Virtus’ brazen answer and forgave him for his rude behavior.

“No problem, but I’d like to get to the point.”

“Get to the point… I see. So can we expect a different choice this time?”

“Before that, I’d like to ask you something.”

“Please go ahead.”

“…Just what do you mean by different choice? I have no idea what choices I’ve made before.”

“Haha, I wish I could tell you that, but the Heavenly God forbids me from revealing it… But you’re free to do what you’ve planned.”

“What I’ve planned… Okay, Virtus, I have a favor to ask of the Heavenly God, so I want you to take me to him now.”

“A meeting with the Heavenly God… I don’t think I can do that.”

“What?”

“I don’t have permission to grant you something like that. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but there are nine ranks among the heavenly beings, and…”

“I’m well aware that you guys have nine ranks, and I’ve also heard that you’re a fifth-rank, which puts you in the middle. So if you can’t do this, then who should I ask?”

“Well, I won’t explain any further, since you already know. Then would you like to meet with my superior, a sixth-rank Power? I don’t have a say in this, but if you’d like to meet the Heavenly God, only angels between the sixth and the eighth rank can give you permission.”

“Sixth-rank angel as in… Posla?”

“That’s right. I’m curious where you got all this information from, but… I’ll put aside my curiosity for now and leave you to it.”

“Wait!”

Henry hastily stopped Virtus as he was about to leave.

Virtus cocked his head and asked, “What is it?”

“Shouldn’t you tell me where Posla is before leaving?”

“Ah, yes! I almost forgot!”

‘This bastard…!’

Henry wanted to punch Virtus in his wicked face, but he tried his best to hold back.

Virtus smiled and plucked a feather from his wing and tossed it to Henry.

The feather landed on Henry’s hand.

“If you infuse my feather with your divine power, it’ll guide you to where Sir Posla is. Then I’ll take my leave…”

With that, Virtus disappeared, and so did the Jordans and the Harehares, as though they had suddenly lost their interest in Henry.

Henry was now alone. He nodded to himself, thinking he had made decent progress.

‘I hope I’m doing the right thing.’

He still didn’t understand what choice he was supposed to make, but he had at least found a lead to meeting with the Heavenly God.

Henry infused the feather he had received from Virtus with divine power.

Whoosh!

A strong wind blew through the windless heavens. Henry frowned and lowered his head at the fierce gust of wind, and when he raised his head again…

“Huh?”

Before him stood thousands of armed angels, flapping their wings. Amidst them sat an angel with two pairs of wings on a cloud throne, looking down at Henry with an arrogant expression.

It was Posla, a sixth-rank Power.